Even while sustaining cities with their cheap labour, urban homeless persons live desperately hard lives with no shelter or social protection. The courage, fortitude and sheer enterprise that allows the homeless to survive on the streets is not recognized or channelized. In placing homeless persons outside the society of 'legitimate urban residents', we are in effect disenfranchising a large, powerless population. Both at the level of social attitudes and at the level of development policy, changes are urgently needed. On 27 January 2012, the Supreme Court reiterated that the right to dignified shelters was a necessary component of the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Many state governments felt they needed detailed guidelines on how to plan, establish and run shelters for homeless persons in their cities. Shelters for Urban Homeless contains detailed guidelines for setting up shelters as a first-stage arrangement. From here, the homeless can take the initial steps towards a life of dignity, sustain a livelihood for themselves and ultimately move beyond these shelters into permanent housing arrangements. This book is intended to assist senior government officials in establishing and running shelters for homeless people in every city in compliance with the expectations of the Supreme Court of India and the Scheme of Shelters for Urban Homeless.